


The Storm Don't Care That We Were Unprepared

by Lopsided_Nebula



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Child POV, Gen, dw the major character death is Link and he was already dead at the start, ghost link, he's never named but it's really obvious that it's him, indirect mentions of character death, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26708695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lopsided_Nebula/pseuds/Lopsided_Nebula
Summary: Chance encounters after you've lost everything while you're trying not to lose more can be almost Goddess sent.Etna and her family are fleeing in search of refuge from Calamity Ganon and run into a stranger in the night.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	The Storm Don't Care That We Were Unprepared

**Author's Note:**

> Story based on art and ideas by @st-Hedge on Tumblr.
> 
> Title based on the song Billy & Anne by The Altogether. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

Etna was tired. 

  
She's tired and hungry and her feet hurt and it's so cold and her fancy new dress that Muma got her special for the princess's return ceremony is ruined, all full of holes and mud and… and she doesn't know where Soot is. She wants to go back for him. He gets scared easily. he shouldn't be alone. She tugged at Muma's hand, still pulling her along.

  
"Muma, we have to go back. We forgot Soot."

  
Muma turned to her slightly at the tugging but she didn't stop moving. 

  
She looked tired too. 

  
Mair was asleep in her other arm. He was too little to be walking this far Muma had said. That was fine, Etna was big, she could do big people things too. 

  
"Mumaaaa."

  
"Etna. Hush."

  
Muma snapped, startling her into momentary silence. Etna felt her face start to crumple. She.. she. 

  
"iwannagohome"

  
she wailed thinly, the horribleness of everything ever crashing down on her. Muma slowed to a stop in a patch of small grass. The hand that held Etna's shook. She crouched down close, still holding Mair in place in his sling. She took a long breath before holding Etna's head in her hand.  
"I do too, but we can't my little flower. It's not safe. You know that?"

  
Etna nodded, she did know. She could still hear the loud pops of fire echo in the tips of her ears.

  
"We must be like swift violets and carry ourselves up mountains before the sun rises, so quiet that even the silent princess couldn't hear us."  
Muma stroked her hair to the side and picked up something from the grass. She tucked it gently behind Etna's ear. 

  
"There, now nothing will be able to catch you little flower." She paused. "You're so brave. So, so, brave. I just need you to keep going for a little longer, okay?"

  
Etna nodded, even though she really wasn't sure if she could. She was pretty sure Muma had just found a plain old piece of grass, but she wasn't going to say anything about it. Etna knew how pretending worked.

  
Muma stood up and grabbed Etna's hand again, dwarfing it in her tight grasp.

  
They set out again into the night. 

* * *

A figure stood on the path, clear in the bright light of the moon. They didn't move much. Drifting from one side to the other but never actually going anywhere. They seemed lost. 

  
"Muma…"

  
A gentle squeeze of her hand.

  
"I see him."

  
It didn't seem safe to Etna from her position in the underbrush, being out in the open like that. He was going to get hurt! The monsters would come, they were everywhere, didn't he know?

  
Muma looked around anxiously. She saw nothing it seemed because she didn't tell Etna to duck lower in the bushes like she had many times before. Still, she was on edge as she unwrapped Muir's sling from her sling and handed him to Etna. 

  
"Don't move." She said to Etna. "I'll be right back."

  
Etna nodded and held Muir close so he wouldn't get cold while out from under Muma's shawl. They had done this before too. Muma going ahead to make sure it was safe before coming back to both of them. She didn’t like it. How alone she felt with Muir in her lap, she was too big and too small in those moments in the worst ways. She watched silently as Muma walked away.

  
The seconds sped up and Etna searched for any monsters Muma may have missed. Muir didn't fuss as she held him tighter and tighter. He was tired.   
She looked back and Muma was already heading back their way, the stranger trailing behind her.

  
"Oh"

  
He said softly, as he came into ear range.

  
"We help each other where we can, especially in times like these."

  
Was all Muma said in response. She gestured for him to follow as she set herself down in the thicket where Etna and and Muir were hid. Etna passed Muir back, glad to not bear his weight any longer.

  
The stranger stared too long. Silent. Still.

  
"I'm sorry."

  
Is what he said at last. To loud in the quiet of the night, his voice echoed off of the trees, warbling in it's uncertainty. Like he didn't know how to be heard. Like he wasn't sure how to make the words enough.

  
"Inside voices."

  
She pipped quickly, wanting to be helpful. Maybe he never had someone tell him. Or maybe he forgot, Etna did that too sometimes. Muma or Pap usually reminded her.

He stared at her now, a lost look on his face.

  
"Like this."

  
Etna whispered to demonstrate. She felt too loud too, but it was hard to be quieter than a whisper. 

  
His mouth opened wide into an 'Aah' shape but he didn't make a sound. Oh. That's how you were quieter than a whisper. That made sense.   
The moonlight glinted on his teeth, tinting his small smile red.

  
"We're all sorry. It does nothing." 

  
Muma said, her voice still sharp. 

  
This time he said nothing, but he nodded, deep and slow. His smile faded to nothing. His eyes looked sad. Like Muma's did. Muma gentled her voice. 

  
"Are you looking for the camps too? We've heard that if you make it past Fort Hateno there's refuge."

  
The stranger's hand drifted to his center unconsciously.

  
"I'm looking… No. I'm.." He blinked repeatedly. "I'm looking for something else. I think. I."

  
He looked back, towards Hyrule Field, still awash in dark reds. Muma clutched Etna's hand closer. She looked up into the blood red sky.

  
"I don't know how you'll find much of anything tonight. There's.." She paused, glancing at Etna. "Strange dangers are about. I've never seen anything like it."

  
He nodded.

  
"Yes," he said. "There are."

  
Muma hesitated before nodding firmly.

  
"Keep yourself safe then, we've had enough death hereabouts. Don't needlessly throw yourself on the pyre."

  
The stranger opened his mouth for a moment, then said nothing. He nodded again, his eyes flickering. 

  
They were all quiet for a moment.

  
He grabbed something from the pouch at his side and held it out to them. 

  
"Here." Was all he said. 

  
In his hand were swift violets.

"Oh we can't."

  
Muma said.

  
"They'll help."

  
He insisted. He didn't push them further but he didn't lower his hand either.

  
"I wouldn't be able to do anything with them anyway, keep what's yours."

  
Muma refuted.

She was right, there was no way they could stop to cook anything of them without putting them even more at risk of being spotted.

  
He paused. His mouth shaped a silent 'Aahh' again before he frowned in consternation. 

  
he dug into his pack again, this time he had to search deeper to find his prize. He pulled out a small bottle full of a dark purplish liquid with triumph and held it out to Muma. 

  
Unwilling to refuse again Muma took it gently and tucked bottle away.

While her hand was occupied Etna took the chance to move closer to the stranger. His outfit was odd, she noticed. Grey and shifting, like it was made of shadows. He crouched down beside her and pulled out another swift violet. She took it gently, Like Muma had, and folded it into the pocket of her dress, so she wouldn't lose it.

  
"You have sad in your eyes"

  
She told him solemnly.

  
"Do I?" He asked, bemused. "How strange."

  
His eyes swirled with a glow of blue in the night. 

  
"No." She shook her head, and leaned up with a cupped hand, as if to tell him a secret. "So do I."

  
He leaned back and nodded, looking at her intently. 

  
"So you do."

  
She jerked her chin, satisfied that what she had said had been given due respect. 

  
"When you're looking, can you also look for my Pap? He's reeaally tall, and he has a big moustache and sometimes he smells kinda funny but that’s okay cause he's really nice and and can you look for Soot too? He's really small and sometimes he runs into the field to play so he might be okay. He's gray, and he has long whiskers. Pap says that means he's going to grow up really big! Can you please see if you can find them?"

  
It burst out of her. She couldn't help it. If there was any chance he could find them she had to ask. Muma's breath hitched behind her. 

  
The Stranger's mouth opened slightly and his face twitched. It looked like he was thinking a lot of things in quick succession."…help where we can" Fell off his lips like the whisper of the wind. 

  
"Right." He nodded to himself, then looked Etna right in the eye in a way that made her feel very taken-seriously and said "I shall.".

  
Like a spell had been broken by his words, Muma realized they had been sitting for too long. As she resettled Muir in his sling once again she turned to the stranger.

  
"Are you sure I can't convince you to join us?" 

  
The Stranger hesitated, but shook his head.

  
"I have things I must do."

  
Muma nodded reluctantly.

  
"Be safe then."

  
She said in reply. And that was all. They started walking again.

  
Etna turned back to wave one last time at the stranger. He raised his hand slowly in reply then vanished, like mist but quicker, and like smoke but kinder so that without a single movement or the slightest sound Etna, Muma, and Mair were alone in the woods once again like they never hadn't been.  
Etna's eyes were wide, but she kept moving, pulled along by her mother into the hushed night. 

  
They didn't meet any more monsters that night, but occasionally Etna would catch a blue glow at the edge of her vision that would be gone by the time she turned her head to it. 

  
They stumbled into Hateno Village as the gray of morning first touched the sky. 

  
And Etna would swear, that, just for a moment as they were being led further into town to a place to rest, she saw a slight, glowing grey figure on the hill above, standing tall with their hand raised to the sky. Then the sun hit the hill, and there was nothing at all. 

* * *

  
Some time later.

  
  
The woods were dark. only lit by the slight torch glow. Blue and eerie, it lit a perfect sphere around itself in the path as it bobbed up and down, carried by a figure the light didn't touch. Guiding perhaps? Searching most definitely. No matter the cause, it was wandering. 

  
With a drive unending it was wandering, unknowing of what it might find, but certain in a way that drove footsteps forward in the face of nothingness. 

  
Find what he had lost. Help where he could. 

  
Nothing else seemed to stay. Not for long anyhow. But that did.

  
It was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> My initial thought with this story was to do a series of short scenes of people meeting link on the road but then this one got so much longer than i planned it to be and I decided it worked better as a singular thing and I made what I had written for another scene into a sort of epilogue. I really liked working on it! I hope i struck the right balance of friendly and eerie with link. It was a fun challenge!
> 
> Also if it wasn't clear the thing link gives them is a stealth potion. I wanted to just give them swift violets but i realized that it wouldn't actually help anything.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave kudos and comments!
> 
> Don't forget to check out @st-Hedge on Tumblr. Their art is seriously gorgeous! 
> 
> Also if you feel like it swing by and say hi to me! My tumblr is @lopsidednebula and I'd be happy to chat. I also take writing prompts for ficlets and such (though I can't guarantee when or if they're done).
> 
> I hope you have a wonderful day.


End file.
